Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-05-07
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE's SUN.
DAY SERMON
Subject: 1.-THE Overthrow of the
Monster"

tory. Isaiah XIV, 8.
About eighteen hundred and ffty-three
Easter mornings have Weakened the earth.
In France for three centuries the almanacs
made the year begin at Easter, until Charles
TX. made the year begin at January LIST. In
the Tower Of London there is a royal pay.
roll Of Edward l., on which there
is an entry of eighteen pence for -four
hundred colored and pictured Easter
eggs. with which the people sported.
In Russia, slaves were fed and aims were dis.
bributed on Easter Ecclesiastical councils
met at Pontus, at Gaul, at Rome, at Achaia
TO decide the particular day, and after con-
tToversy, more animated than gracious, de-
cided it, and now through all Christendom,
in some way the first Sunday after the full
moon which happens upon or next after
March 81, is filed with Easter rejoicing
The Royal Court of the Sabbaths is made
mp Of mty-two Fifty-one are princes in the
royal household, but Easter is queen. She
wears richer diadem, and sways a more
jeweled sceptre and in her smile nations are
lrradiated. Unusually welcome this year be
cause OF the harsh winter and the late spring,
che seems to step out Of the snow-bank
rather than the conservatory come out of the
North instead of the South, out of the Arctic
rather than the tropics, dismounting from the
icy equinox; but welcome this queenly day,
holding high up in her right hand the
wrenched-off bolt Of Christs sepulchre, and
holding high up in her left hand the key to
all the cemeteries in Christendom.
It is an exciting thing to see an army
routed and flying. They run each other down.
They scatter everything valuablein the track
Unwheeled artillery. Hoof of horse on breast
OF wounded and dying man. You have read
Of the French falling back from Sedan, or
Napoleon's track of 10000 corpses in the
snow-banks of Russia, or of the retreat
Of our own armies from Manassas, or of
the ffyra kinpC f1Iu1h1incr ba f,f Re-
thoran with their armies, while the hail
storms of heaven and the swords of Joshua's
most struck them with their fury In my text
is worse discontinue. 1t seems that a black
giant proposed to conquer the earth. He
gathered for his host all the aches and pains
and malarlaS and cancers and dstemperS
and epidemics of the ages. He marched
Them down, drilling them in the north
east wind and amid the slush
OF tempeSts. He threw up barricades of grave
mound. He pitched tent of charmed house
Some Of the troops marched with slow tread
commanded by consumptions, some in double
quick, commanded by pneumonias. Some he
took by long besiegement of evil habit, and
some by one stroke of the battle axe of cas-
ualty. With bony hands he pounded
at the door of hospitals and sick rooms,
and won all the victories in all the great
battlefields Of all the five continents Forward
march, the conqueror of conquerors, and all
LfC 0ciicIt1o duu OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES ana
all Presidents and Kings and Sutans and
Cars drop under the feet of his war-charger
But one Christmas night his antagonist was
born As most of the plaques and sick
nesses and despotisms come out
Of the East, it was appropriate that
the new conqueror should come out of
the same quarter. Power is given Him to
awaken all the fallen of all the centuries and
Of all lands, and marshal them against the
black giant. Fields have already been won,
but the last day of the worlds exist
ence will see the decisive battle When
Christ shall lead forth His two brigades,
the brigade of the risen dead and the brigade
Of the celestial host, the black giant will fall
back, and the brigade from the riven
sepulchres will take Him from beneath and
the brigade Of descending immortals will take
Him from above, and death shall be swal-
lowed up in victory
The old braggart that threatened the CON
quest and demolition of the planet has lost
bis throne, has lost his sceptre, has lost his
palace, has lost his prestige, and the one word
written over all the gates of mausoleum and
ca5acomb and metropolis, on cenotaph and
sarcophagus, on the lonely khan of the Arc
tic explorer, and on the catafalque OF great
cathedral, written in capitals of azalea
and Gala lily, written in musical cadence,
written in doxology of great assemblages,
written on the sculptured door of the family
vault, is "victory.h Coronal word. emban-
nered word, apocalyptic word, chief word of
the triumphal arch under which conquerors
return.
Victory Word shouted at Culloden and
balaklava and Blenheim, at Megiddo and Sol
ferino, at Marathon, where the Athenians
drove back the Modes; at Poictiers, where
Charles Martel broke the ranks of the Sara
Gems; at Ealamis, where Themistocles in
the great sea fight COMPOUNDED the
Persians, and at the door of the
Eastern cavern of chiseled rock, where
Christ came out through a recess and
throttled the King of Terrors and put him
back in the niche from which the celestial
Conqueror had just emerged. Ahal.when
the jaws Of the Eastern mausoleum took
down the black giant death was swallowed
death.
The old antagonist is driven back into nv
tnoiogy with all the lore about Stygian ferry
and ChAron with oar and boat. Melrose
ABBEY and kenilworth Castle are no more in
ruins than is the sepulchre: We shall have
no more TO- do with death than we have
with the cloak-room at Governors or
Presidents levee. We stop at such cloak-
room and leave in charge of a servant onr
overcoat, our overshoes, our outward ap-
parel, that we may not be impeded in the
brilliant round of the drawing groom. Well,
my friends, when we go out of this world we
are going to kings banquet, and to a recep-
tlon OF monarchs, and at the door of the tomb
we leave the cloak of flesh and the wrappings
with which we meet the storms of this
world. At the close Of an earthly reception,
under the brush and broom of the porter the
coat or hat may be handed to us better than
when we resigned it, and the cloak of human
ity viii finally be returned to us improved
and frightened and purified and glorifed
You and l do not want our bodies returned
as they are now. We want to get rid of all
their weaknesses and all their susceptibilities
20 fatigue and all their slowness of locomotion
They viii be put through a chemistry
Of soil and heat and cold and chang.
ing seasons out Of which God will
reconstruct them as much better than
they are now as the body Of the rosiest
and healthiest child that bounds over the
lawn at Prospeck Park is better than the
sickest patient in Bellevue Hospital. But as
10 our soul, we will cross right over, not
waiting for obseluies, independent of
obituary, into a state in every way
better, with wider room and velocities
beyond computation; the dullest Of us into
companionship with the very best spirits in
their very best mood, in the very parlor OF
the universe. the four walls FURNISHED and
paneled and pictured and glodfied with all
the splendors that the infinite God in all the
ages has been able TO invent Victoryl
This view of course makes it of but little
Importance whether we are cremated OF
sepultired. II the latter is dust to dust, the
former Is ashes TO ashes. If any prefer incin-